Spot Visits

I always find it interesting when someone makes a one-day visit to see a team or an individual train and the coaches coach and then makes profound conclusions about the training program. There is no way that will reveal the breath and depth of a training program. When you do that you are seeing a snapshot in a photo album, a pixel in a mega pixel picture. To understand someone’s training demands total immersion and study. Everything must be studied in context. In my career I have seen some unbelievable training sessions, but if did not understand where those sessions fit in the bigger picture I would have come away from there with an entirely wrong picture of the overall training. For example last week I visited University of Florida and watched a weight training session and part of football practice. Did I learn something, yes I did. Did I get deep insights into their system, no way. I gathered some interesting ideas that stimulated me to take another look at something I have been doing in training. I plan on going back and spending more time armed with many questions to get better understanding of their approach. One visit or a video of a workout is not enough. In three weeks I will spend four days with my colleague and good friend Jim Radcliffe at University of Oregon, I suspect I will get more out of that visit because I have studied Jim’s system and had numerous opportunities to observe and exchange ideas. As part of the learning journey that is coaching look for knowledge, not just information.

Vern is the Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems. He has been the a conditioning coach for several MLS teams as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men's World Cup Soccer team. Vern is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and New York Mets. He has lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe and has authored six books and over one hundred articles related to coaching and sport performance in a variety of sports. He has a BA in teaching with a coaching minor and an MA in Education with an emphasis in physical education from Stanford University.

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